The National Dance Company of Spain will close this weekend the performances in Havana on the 27th International Ballet Festival Alicia Alonso with a contemporary version of Carmenthe organizers announced on Wednesday.
“In Cuba there is a lot of history with Carmen Y Giselle so we are very curious about how this version will be received by the public”, said the artistic director of the company, Joaquín de Luz, at a press conference.
The Spaniards will present the work with choreography by the Swedish Johan Inger and a cast that includes the Cuban Yanier Gómez next Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Avellaneda room of the National Theater.
“We have just presented ourselves in New York with this version and it has been a success, so we expect the same in Cuba,” added De Luz, who also highlighted his “admiration” for the Cuban ballet school. “It’s a way of understanding dance that I’ve shared since I was little,” she said.
Ballet Carmen part of the homonymous novel written in 1846 by the French Próspero Merimée. In 1949 she was taken to the ballet, by the choreographer Roland Petit. Its Cuban version was premiered at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, in 1967, with choreography by the dancer and one of the founders of Cuban ballet, Alberto Alonso.
The performances now of the National Dance Company, created in 1979 under the name of National Classical Ballet, take place within the programming of the Havana festival, which began on October 20 and ends next Sunday.
Viengsay Valdés returned to the stage with “Giselle” at the Havana Ballet Festival
Since its first edition in 1960, the event, now named after the legendary Cuban dancer and choreographer Alicia Alonso (1920-2019), brings together great dance artists from around the world every two years.
The 2020 edition was not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This weekend, the Festival also announces presentations by the National Ballet of Cuba at the Sauto Theater in Matanzas.
Efe/OnCuba.
